Happy Leap Year day!

Why do we need leap years? So that our calendars are in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun.. duh!!

Did you know that since our calendar has exactly 365 days in a year, we would lose almost six hours from our calendar every year if we did not add February 29th to every 4th year?! Since a leap year only occurs every 4 years (or 1,460 days), those that are born on it may face many advantages as well as obstacles:

The chances of being born on a leap day is 1 in 1,461 and only 4 million people in the world were born on February 29th.

There are a variety of leap years around the world. For instance, the Chinese leap year has 13 months, with a leap month added about every 3 years. The name of the leap month is the same as previous lunar months. The Chinese leap month is calculated by the number of new moons between the 11th month in one year and the 11th month in the following year. A leap month is inserted if there are 13 moons from the start of the 11th month in the first year to the start of the 11th month in the next year.

The Jewish calendar has 13 months in a leap year. There are 29 or 30 days in each month in a Jewish leap year, which has 383, 384 or 385 days. The extra month is called “Adar” and according to Jewish tradition it is seen as a lucky and happy month. A Jewish leap year occurs 7 times in a 19 year cycle. The 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 16th and 19th years are a leap year in this cycle.

Today only comes once in four years, so make today, February 29th a memorable one. Take that extra LEAP… Happy Leap Year everyone from your friends at Capital Ford!